Originally Posted by witchygrrlIn good news, however, DH has a second interview on tuesday! Our vacation is delayed one day, but whatever. I'm just glad he's in the next round. This time he has to teach a class. He will totally rock that-I have no oubt. But still good vibes! If this works out, many other things will be able to happen in our nearer future....

Yay for DH! Keep us posted! I hope you're feeling better?

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Originally Posted by kittywittyWe had a tornado touchdown about 1-2 miles from our home last night. We had tons of warning, though. Very lucky. Our friends were not, though. They were housesitting for family and they were blocked in by several trees. Luckily everyone was fine!

I'm glad everybody's OK.

I read that too fast and thought you had a tomato touch down...ye Gods, I need more sleep...

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Originally Posted by Aeresslol plagues of door to door salesmen lol

I picked up a set of windchimes and a glowy horb. good stuff

I have a sign on my back door, which is the one you drive up to (our house is oriented towards the view, which is away from the head of the driveway), which says "Please go around to front door, including deliveries. No solicitors, including religious"-- and who made the effort to come to my front door? JW's...ugh. Right in the middle of my brunch. They were sweet, but I know they know how to read. They handed me a tract, after all

What is a glowy horb?

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Originally Posted by CariOfOzHello mamas! We just got a call from the Lovely Peter from iinet and we now have internet!!!! I have nothing wonderful to share or say.. just thought I'd say hi hehehe

YAY for internet! I know you will have plenty to say, soon enough <poke>

Hello lovelies! What a crazy month! I am so far behind! I hope you all are doing well and hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon. My schedule at work keeps changing and then with meetings, counseling appointments, plant medicine class and my tree project, I barely have time to catch my breath. Sitting at McD's while my client works right now, so I have a little time.

I have a tree project to do for class. I was going to do it on the slippery elm, but I can't find one around. So I need a new tree. Any suggestions for a tree that grows a lot in NH which could have medicinal properties?

I am the Goddess, I am the Mother, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.

Kittywitty about the tornado touching down. The storms this week - UGH and the devastation. Ma nature is on a roll. Clay & everyone in the east - I hope you will stay moderately dry (ie. no flooding) with that nasty weather now making it's way over to y'all.

Cari - whee for internet!

Aeress - I love that idea for the kids!

Witchy - WOOHOOO for your DH.

I can't believe I am working today - I should have taken the day off... well I'll get a couple of things done. I just have no "umph!" or motivation to finish right now. I am looking forward to my approved vacation at the end of June. 2.5 weeks of NO work (no calls, no emails, no nothing - unless it's notification my office burned down to the ground). I think I hear angelic voices singing each time I think of it.

And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.

So, shall we do a summer camp this year? I would be happy to do a week.

Aweyn- I think you had some topic ideas.

I would love to do a kids camp section, since this is an area I would like to develop. I know we tend to do stuff for us, but maybe we could do a week for the kids as well. :)

YES and YAY :D

GRRRR< not letting my type below this quote to keep it organized. Oh well. My son calls them tomatoes...he goes outside to look for tomatoes in the sky. Kittywitty, glad it missed you. We had a big cell that hit my house but thankfully the funnel that started to form went back up. We got baseball size hail but somehow no damage. Here is a pic my DH's coworker took, its the same storm that hit my house, about 10 minutes before.

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Originally Posted by Maiasaura

I'm glad everybody's OK.

I read that too fast and thought you had a tomato touch down...ye Gods, I need more sleep...

Hello lovelies! What a crazy month! I am so far behind! I hope you all are doing well and hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon. My schedule at work keeps changing and then with meetings, counseling appointments, plant medicine class and my tree project, I barely have time to catch my breath. Sitting at McD's while my client works right now, so I have a little time.

I have a tree project to do for class. I was going to do it on the slippery elm, but I can't find one around. So I need a new tree. Any suggestions for a tree that grows a lot in NH which could have medicinal properties?

Blessing the google gods once more - native trees in NH unfortunately I can not help with the medicinal properties part as I'm not well versed in that area. The only thought in my head was willow bark?

Your project sounds super fun (i love treeees!)

And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.

Originally Posted by sweetsunshine85I have a tree project to do for class. I was going to do it on the slippery elm, but I can't find one around. So I need a new tree. Any suggestions for a tree that grows a lot in NH which could have medicinal properties?

Don't you like MA anymore? Where looks appealing to you? Are you wanting to stay in the NorthEast?

I want to go home. Back to my home state. I've been calling and searching for places but am getting so discouraged. I'm beginning to think I should look within MA but near the RI border. But, if I do that, my insurance still won't cover Roo's neuropsych (who is in RI.)

Speaking of Roo's neuropsych, Roo has his appt today. Not looking forward to driving in the holiday weekend traffic. Ugh.

Mama, Artist, Mary Kay Consultant

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White pine would be great! I went to a seminar with Susun Weed at MA Pagan Pride, 2 years ago now? Anyway, she talked about White Pine, focusing on how much vitamin C was in them. We were 20 miles away from the NH border, so I'm sure white pine goes into NH. You eat the

Greenmagick, that is a crazy looking storm! Yikes! And kittywitty, so glad the tornado missed you too.

I'm finally feeling better. I definitely have the aftereffects though. DH felt it yesterday, though he has a stomach of steel, and never really gets these things, and DD had a small fever last night. She's a bit constipated too, though she normally doesn't, ahem, go that often anyway. I'm hoping we're all through with this today so we can enjoy our weekend.

Wow...Nicole that is freaky!!! I am so glad you all are fine. St.Louis is getting it hard this year. We get everything that passes through you, usually.

This is a pic someone took of the tornado. It was on a camera phone. This is on the same road I live on but about a mile down the road and only a few blocks from one of our old houses. The kids are fine. It wasn't too bad at our actual house but the kids are still traumatized by the straight-line winds that came through here last month and did massive damage.

Originally Posted by DaughterOfKaliAnyone doing anything good this weekend?

I want to go home. Back to my home state. I've been calling and searching for places but am getting so discouraged. I'm beginning to think I should look within MA but near the RI border. But, if I do that, my insurance still won't cover Roo's neuropsych (who is in RI.)

Speaking of Roo's neuropsych, Roo has his appt today. Not looking forward to driving in the holiday weekend traffic. Ugh.

Oh, double-ugh on the holiday traffic! M has an appt 7pm Monday night. I was like...who in the world would be open on a holiday, let alone at 7pm???

So...if you go to RI your ds's neuro will be covered, am I getting that correctly? I wish you well, whatever you end up doing. And Roo, too Is he 8 yet?

Plans-- we went to the Scottish Highland games today, in SC, only about an hour's drive away. What a pretty drive, and an hour seems so short because we're used to driving 8 at a time! I've been wanting to go there for like 8 years. We had a good time, ds and I both, but I was rather bummed that it seemed to be mostly vendors. I did get some neat leads on M's family genealogy, or a possible way to trace it. I found a possible tartan, too, though they didn't have a specific one for his family name. I took photos of it in the guy's book so I can look it up more I was very tempted by the stuff in the Irish booth, but I was good and didn't buy a thing for me. I got ds a stone bracelet (lots of pretty stones on a stretchy band) and a wooden toy crossbow that works with rubberbands and eraser-tipped darts. And I indulged us a soda for each. In all, I don't think it was really worth the $5 for parking and the $20 to get in, but at least it didn't cost us much gas.

AND I discovered that about 7 miles south of my house, the gas is exponentially cheaper! I wonder if it'd be worth driving 7 miles each way to get 12 or more cents off a gallon?

OH!!! DS's martial arts teacher-- dunno if I mentioned this, but he's also a woodsman type and survivalist type and live-off-the-land type, and he runs these camps every summer. I could never afford them because they're $350 for four days!! But Mr.B is working with me and that's the week I'll be going to MA and he's giving me a pretty decent discount. AND I won't have to pay someone else for childcare for a different week, so yay all around! *Cross fingers* that it all works out!

Oh...I got a response letter from my mom, finally. She is pretty upset with me, and some of the things she said were rather accusing as well. I really will be honest and try to look at some of those things and go "Do I really do that?" and try to modify, because I don't like it. She, for her part, said pretty much that she's Always Been Like That and is unwilling to change. I feel that my letter expressed a whole bunch of my feelings and "I" statements and that hers was a lot of pointing fingers, but whatever...I guess from here I'll just have to work on practicing acceptance of That's Just Who She Is, I dunno. I don't think I'll be putting myself in the situation of going there anymore, though.

Busy weekend planned- yesterday we started putting down the floor in the girl's room (the addition we're building). We'll finish it today. We also put together an IKEA low bunk bed for that room and bought about half the material we need for the larger chicken coop. Today the goal is to finish the floor, finish the bunkbed, and install the smoke detectors (they have to be hard wired, not battery or I'd do it myself), and build the bulk of the chicken coop while buying the rest of the materials (we have the foundation runners, the framing, and the floor... once that's up we'll get the siding and roofing, and the wire for inside the coop). Tomorrow we need to finish up the coop, mow the yard, do general "lawn stuff", and attend a BBQ at my MIL's.

And this morning we had an invasion of sugar ants! I think it was because ds was a bit messy with his watermelon last night... normally we have those big black ants but these are itty bitty sugar ants in a clear trail from window to "points of interest". We have a mint "anti-ant" spray and I covered the window, wall, and start of the trail but we're still getting stragglers. Grrrr. After everything that's happened, ants are NOT on my happy bug list. LOL

The sun is out (it was raining earlier) and I should get to work... hope everyone has smooth driving (no traffic, low gas, and yeah I'd probably do the drive for the lower gas... in part to see if the loss in customers would lead closer stations to drop the price), happy children, and a fun weekend!

Many thoughts and hopes for those in the various armed services or in fields where they face danger on the behalf of others (no matter what side they're on).

Giggles... Re Your Brains just came on the play list and the kids are singing along. My favorite version is this one. One of my best friends used this song as her father/daughter dance at her wedding. :)

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Originally Posted by wombatclay
Our maximum grocery budget (so food but also general household supplies like TP or laundry soap) is 100 dollars a week for a family of 5 in a high COL region (cookbooks like Family Feasts for 75 Dollars a Week help, as does our CSA and the fact that we eat a lot of rice/beans). I do shop once a week since we need fresh produce/fruit/dairy product but those are quick "maintainance" trips... I do a bigger trip every other week. Once we have space for a real freezer/pantry I'll try for the full on once a month deal but for now I can't manage it. I'm betting that once AppleBelley arrives things will be super crazy for a while so I might try stocking up starting in June so that Sept/Oct can be really really light months in terms of shopping/cooking.

Wow. $100 a week? We spend about $200/wk for a family of four, but good whole foods are pretty expensive around here. I have to order a bunch off the internet. If you are in the Great Plains region, you should check out PrairieLand Foods. They always have decent food, fresh produce and they are pretty cheap.

One thing we don't have to buy is TP though... we cut up old blankets and thick sheets for cloth wipes. Once you get used to it, they're much nicer on the bum then TP. We wash them with the cloth diapers (twice on hot).

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Originally Posted by mommamanjari

Every time I get on here my baby wakes up or my son is hungry! I hope you are all well and I just wanted to share the mosaic that I made yesterday. The first of many, I'm sure! I want to make a ritual space in the backyard with this at the center. It is on a stepping stone, but there are crystals & the surface is not smooth so we won't step on it! Too pretty for that anyhow.

Gorgeous! Do you make them to sell or just for yourself? *hinthint*

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Originally Posted by wombatclay

Maia- Spoon Theory! It's related to a very cool blog post (here) about the realities of living with a chronic disease. For those who don't want to read the whole post (though it's not that long and it's REALLY good), the basic concept is that living with a chronic disease is kind of like being handed a pile of spoons each morning... everything you do during the day "costs" a spoon or two and once they're gone, they're gone. So choices have to be made and spoons saved for emergencies. The post goes into more detail, explaining how simple activities that "well people" don't even think about (a morning shower that includes shaving legs and washing hair) cost more spoons than you'd expect and demonstrating how fundamental the number of remaining spoons is to a person's options/choices/decisions.

I love that! I'm sharing on FB and with several specific friends.

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Originally Posted by wombatclay
And this morning we had an invasion of sugar ants! I think it was because ds was a bit messy with his watermelon last night... normally we have those big black ants but these are itty bitty sugar ants in a clear trail from window to "points of interest". We have a mint "anti-ant" spray and I covered the window, wall, and start of the trail but we're still getting stragglers. Grrrr. After everything that's happened, ants are NOT on my happy bug list. LOL

I got some Diatomacheous Earth (sp?) and we sprinkle it EVERYWHERE for the ants. It's cut the problem in half even with spring coming on.

We are going to try to start up a Spiral Scouts Hearth this year. Bug is turning 5 and ladybug is 1, so it will be very informal. Any advice?

Yes, his neuro would be covered if I moved. Yep, Roo is 8. If moving doesn't work out and the district refuses to budge, I'll be homeschooling in September. I'll be seriously bummed out if I can't find a good place to move to, though.

I suppose I could look for a place a couple towns over. I feel like I don't want to bother moving within state, though. I just can't stand how snobby and heartless (on the whole) this area is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maiasaura

So...if you go to RI your ds's neuro will be covered, am I getting that correctly? I wish you well, whatever you end up doing. And Roo, too Is he 8 yet?

Mama, Artist, Mary Kay Consultant

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Spiral Scouts- Well, my experience with them was so, so- they didn't send me my paperwork, were very slow on most things and seemed to have grown too big too fast. However, the general idea is great and I would love to be part of a group.

Yes, his neuro would be covered if I moved. Yep, Roo is 8. If moving doesn't work out and the district refuses to budge, I'll be homeschooling in September. I'll be seriously bummed out if I can't find a good place to move to, though.

I suppose I could look for a place a couple towns over. I feel like I don't want to bother moving within state, though. I just can't stand how snobby and heartless (on the whole) this area is.

I think in this climate, you'd have to fight whereever you go for Roo. A friend of mine here in MA is going through a big fight for her two older sons right now, and even though she has multiple experts saying that these kids need services, the town is refusing them. And a friend of mine in NJ s having a similar issue. It's just awful.

What about school choice, though? If the town can't provide services for Roo, then the town should pay for him to go to another school elsewhere. Have you tried that tack?

hugs DoK... I hope you find both a wonderful placce and a wonderful school/service provider for Roo. Hang in there! We just need to get you and Maia settled into awesome new spaces. Anyone else want to join the perpetual candle of home sale and moving? :)

Wolf- family cloth is a *shudder* for me... I can barely tolerate cloth dipes, and honestly they're the first thing I cut when times are stressful. LOL Thankfully tp isn't terribly expensive (even though I do get softer stuff than the "econo" brands). In general, we can't afford organics so we stick with veggies from our CSA (which are both local and organic) and we eat a LOT of rice and beans. I even have a cookbook called Lean Bean Cuisine that is just bean dishes! :) Cooking Like a Goddess, Family Feasts for $75 a Week, the two Monastery cookbooks (From a Monastery Kitchen and Twelve Months of Monastery Soups) and a nifty book called "Main Meal Salads" are my constant kitchen companions. It works out though since dd1 has celiac and we'd be eating a lot of rice anyway, and during the June-Sept season we get a lot of greens from the CSA (we're in rural upstate NY so it's a short growing season but good while it lasts!). We also don't eat much meat (maybe chicken 1-2x a week and red meat 3-4x a year), don't do cows milk (we do eat cow milk yogurt, use cow milk cheese as a garnish, and buy soy milk for drinking), and we don't buy a lot of prepared goods. I can usually keep the grocery bill to about 75 dollars, leaving me 25 dollars for "fun stuff" like more exotic fruit, or chocolate, or some beer for DH.

Ah well, we're nearly back on track budget wise... the kids have been annoyed at the menu options this past week but there it is. Oatmeal or Rice with chopped apples and cinnamon with a glass of soy milk for breakfast, yogurt smoothies and apple slices for snack, peanut butter and jelly on corn cakes with sliced bananas for lunch, then an all in one rice dish for dinner. We even had some chicken in the freezer and I shredded it up and mixed it with a bunch of veggies and beans to make tacos one night. Another week of this and we'll be back to normal. Which honestly isn't too different. LOL

Gotta run... we're going to my MIL's for a BBQ. Should be nice, though I wish we were staying here so we could work on the chicken coop!

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spiral scout alternative: kamana.org -- i've thought about doing this program but i think it would be more worthwhile with at least a few other families. most of ds's friends just aren't into this sort of thing.

ds graduated from kindergarten on friday. still waiting to hear if he's being considered to the alternative school. but my mother is soooooo peeved that we are even considering something other than public school (she's a retired Canadian ps teacher - that Canadian part being somewhat important)

Aeress - i hear ya on the "i'm not on MDC so often". i'm not at all liking the new format. or the ads that slow down the browsing. and part of me wants to teach younger moms all about how to search archives. "young lady, meet google. google, meet young lady." the new MDC users probably have grown up with google. and it isn't like MDC archives aren't searchable without an account. maybe i'm just getting impatient and cynical in my not-quite-crone years.

but still... DoK mentioned a few posts ago about incorporating more spirituality into daily rhythms. Does anyone have suggestions? At mealtimes, do you use the same prayer every day? What other ways to incorporate spirituality? I grew up going to church once a week but otherwise that was largely the "spirituality". It was more of a thing you had to do than something you wanted to do. Though I must admit, I went because of the music (I was in the choir) and snoozed during the spoken parts. But now it is a struggle for me... I'd love ideas.

Wolfcat, I'd love to make the stepping stones to sell. That was my first and only so far. I have so much that I want to do, but I think it will be more realistic when the kids are older. I can barely steal five minutes, let alone enough time to make a mosaic! I make jewelry too, but the little beads are too much to keep track of right now.

Daisy is almost ready to walk & gets into EVERYTHING! She is so funny. Prahlad is fascinated with playing "little baby" lately. He pretends to nurse & asks for diaper changes, etc,etc. It's driving me kind of crazy, but I'm trying to just let him get the attention he needs that way for now. I hope it passes soon though. He has also developed a new unreasonable terror from having a bug near by. Even a little beetle. *sigh* And somehow the other day, he managed to pee on his forehead, hair, clothes and the door. We were at my friends' house & I had to give him a bath and clean up their bathroom. It's really all worth it.

Last day of the month... June will be another very busy month... I need idea for the Solstice... beside eating strawberries. Something simple enough to be done during the week as the week-end before and the week-end after are already taken... Any idea?

DD2 has her first wiggling tooth... If I can go to the bead store before she loose it, I'll get special beads to leave under her pillow from the Tooth Faery. I already have Faery Dust.

Morning Dear Ladies! We had a really nice time with my fam yesterday but then we brought home, cranky, sneezy, hot children. Allergies are bugging all 3 kids, and it was 80 some degrees in their room when we got home, so we had to put the air in. They are in good moods so far, which impresses me, since I am exhausted. We plan to relax and do some math today.

June meal ideas- all grilled or food from the garden? So, strawberries, salad with whatever is ready, and maybe some grilled veg seasoned with basil, oregano, onion, garlic and olive oil? This sounds good to me for the entering of summer.

Clay, I sure do hope you can find more spoons, because it's early still!

tomorrow, we're headed to Maine, up past Bar Harbor a bit. My aunt is there at the house now, and she told me last night that there are newborn baby robins under the porch. I can't wait to show my DD. She'll be so thrilled! We'll be up there for about 10 days, and we'll have to go to the library and internet cafe if we want to go online. I think I'll have to dig out an answering machine to bring because my friend is technically overdue (she's 41 weeks with her first), and honestly, I was hoping the baby would be born by now. But she went offline suddenly last night while we were talking, so I hope something happened! But if not, I want to know as soon as possible.

Okay, I'm rambling. Everyone have a nice cuppah of whatever your fav morning drink may be, and enjoy the day!

teething- I'm not sure about the molars, but he does have four other teeth breaking through. But these dipes are more like the ones he had with rotovirus... just nasty nasty mucus and gas you can hear from the next room over. It's gross and unfortunately in the last week or two he has been fascinated with poop so if the diaper isn't removed within seconds of his making a deposit, he starts trying to get his hands in there to see what there is to see! Ack!

The temps are into the 90s now and I'm dying... I hate humidity and heat, and today is a big ol one two punch. I'm drinking non-stop (which means my bladder demands its due every 20 minutes or so) and keeping my hair wet to cool down but I just can't seem to reach that "not flushed, not dizzy" zone of happiness. Thankfully the kiddos are calming down a bit, but it's been a long long day.

Maybe spirituality in every day life would be a good camp topic? I still have my Spiritual Home binder on the shelf from a few camps ago...

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